Suit over unauthorized bridge workers revived

Courts Electricians sued over uncertified workers

Published 4:00 am, Friday, July 2, 2010

Bart Ney, Public Information Officer for the Bay Bridge, stands near the top of the suspension tower at the construction site of the new Bay Bridge Project on Monday June 14, 2010 in Oakland, Calif.

Bart Ney, Public Information Officer for the Bay Bridge, stands near the top of the suspension tower at the construction site of the new Bay Bridge Project on Monday June 14, 2010 in Oakland, Calif.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Suit over unauthorized bridge workers revived

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A state appeals court has revived a lawsuit by an electrical workers union over hiring on the Bay Bridge reconstruction project, a ruling that the union's lawyer said will affect hundreds of jobs at the bridge and the Caldecott Tunnel expansion.

The First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled Tuesday that lighting work on the bridge, including the installation of conduits that carry electric wires, is governed by a recently passed state law requiring contractors to hire certified electricians for certain types of jobs.

The court overturned an Alameda County judge's ruling that dismissed a suit by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 595. The union accused Roadway Electrical Works of hiring unauthorized workers whose lower wages enabled the company to submit the winning bid on one of the state contracts for the bridge's new eastern span.

The union's lawyer, Ellyn Moscowitz, said the practical effect of the ruling is to require the company to hire union electricians for the bridge project as well as the newly begun work on the Caldecott Tunnel's fourth bore and planned repairs on the San Mateo Bridge.

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If the new law applies to the Bay Bridge project, as the court concluded, the judge must order Roadway Electrical Works to employ certified electricians instead of laborers who make $15 an hour less, Moscowitz said.

"There is another year and a half of work to be done, all of the road lights and overhead lighting" on the Bay Bridge, Moscowitz said. She said the union would also seek millions of dollars in back pay for workers who should have been hired.

In dismissing the suit, Superior Court Judge Steven Brick said the case was a dispute about prevailing wages that must be decided by the Department of Industrial Relations, not the courts. The department had decided in an earlier case that either laborers or certified electricians could install electric conduits.

But the appeals court said state law requires specialty contractors like Roadway Electrical to hire electricians for conduit work. The lawsuit involves safety as well as wages, because it specifies that certified electricians must be employed "to perform dangerous tasks," the court said in a 3-0 ruling.